The Latest & Greatest Danee News

I feel like I should do another Q&A post, but it's way too late and I'm way too tired to do something like that right now.

Instead, I'll just give a quick update on what's been going on.

As I mentioned the other day, with the latest video, Danee has finally passed her due date, and is a "newborn" instead of a preemie. To go along with that, she has outgrown all preemie clothes, and some of the newborn size ones are getting a little snug. The newborn diapers are also getting a little tight around the thighs... And last night, all three of us (Cindy, Danee and myself) had the worst night of sleep we've had since she was born. This evening we kept her up as much as we could, so she'll hopefully sleep more tonight.

My sister Susan recently asked when the adoption will be iron clad, to the point where she is really ours and nobody can take her from us. Susan, you can rest easy knowing that last Friday, our attorney went to court and officially terminated the father's rights. The mother had already signed hers away, but the father wasn't so cooperative, so we had to give him 30 days notice, and then cut him off. It went off without a hitch!

Next on the Adoption Agenda, is another home study. You know, in case we were just kidding when we put on the "aren't we a great family" show back in November. This second inspection needs to come once we've had Danee for 60 days. Since we brought her home on December 24, that means that sometime around February 24, we'll call the inspector guy for the follow up. We're budgeting a month or so for him to visit us, put together his report, and get it to the Pierce County adoption liaison, who in turn will send it to the court commissioner with her recommendation that we be granted permanent adoption status. Then, Cindy and I will go before the court and take an oath of some sort - kind of a parental inauguration day, only probably with fewer people attending - and then it'll be done! We'll get her new birth certificate that lists us as parents, and she will officially be ours forever.

All of that will likely take place by the latter half of March. Once it's all done, we can finally bless her in Church, which is tentatively penciled in for the first Sunday in April. We'll see how well we stick to that date! In other exciting family and Church related news, Cindy and I will be getting Sealed for Eternity this Spring also! We're really excited to be taking this big step, and are even happier to be able to do it with our sweet baby! More details will be revealed as they unfold...

Okay, so that covers Danee becoming a genuine Brinkerhoff... But we gotta keep her healthy too! And that is where this comes in:



I think they mis-spelled it on their own logo though. It really should be $YNAGI$. It's one of the new genetic engineered drugs, that is reportedly very effective at preventing infections of RSV, a nasty virus that is the leading cause of bronchiolitis and several other respiratory infections. In babies, it can be fatal.

Just so we're all on the same page, it's important.

Even more important, since we have a daycare in our home, and those little germ-magnets bring in every bug from miles around! Danee got her first dose at the hospital the day before coming home. We'd heard that it was very expensive, but nobody actually told us how much. The first dose was covered by her DSHS/Medicaid insurance, since she hadn't been placed with us yet.

For the past week, we've been wrangling with pharmacies and insurance companies trying to get her second dose lined up.

It's not a drug that's stocked at your corner pharmacy. It's overnighted from somewhere (the manufacturer maybe) the day before it's needed. It really is quite a big deal.

I got a call from the specialty pharmacy, wanting to get my insurance information so they could have our medicine sent to our doctor's office. I got as far as saying what insurance company I'm covered by, and the girl on the phone cut me off. "Oh. With that company, they don't cover the shot at your pediatrician's office. You'll have to bring her here to us."

When I asked where they were located, she initially said Everett (YIKES!) but then said "or Tukwila." For those of you not from the wet side, Everett is a good 2+ hours away, but Tukwila is just over 30 minutes. So that sounded good.

It sounded even better today, when we found out that to have it at the pediatrician's office would cost us $720. That was enough to make us build a bubble around Danee until Summer to keep her safe. $720 per month until April is not something we have in the budget, especially after all the expenses of the adoption...

Oh but wait. If we go to the pharmacy in Tukwila, it's "only" $160 per dose. Well, that's much better!

Until Danee gets a little bigger, in which case she'll need a larger dose of $ynagi$.

That larger dose will cost us $300 at the cheap location. We didn't ask how much it would be at our local Dr. office. So Wednesday at 1, Danee is going up to Tukwila to get a shot in the leg, to protect her lungs.

In case you were wondering, this starter dose retails for nearly $1000, and the larger dose is $1500.

Cindy had the first of her two baby showers tonight! It was the one put on by her friends at church, and they did a great job! She got lots of loot, and a bunch of them even pooled together and got us the stroller we wanted - the one that our carseat latches in to!

One of the ladies in our ward is a professional chef, and naturally she was recruited to make the cake. Cindy brought home some of the leftovers, and I'll verify the fact that it was a very delicious cake! In fact, it still IS a delicious cake - there is still some left, because I did NOT eat it all!

It was decorated cuter than any baby shower cake I've ever seen! (not that I've ever really seen any baby shower cakes before though) The cake was roughly the shape of a baby bed, and this fondant sculpture was sitting on top of it:



After they got home from the shower, Cindy brought Danee downstairs to get her ready for bed, while I made bottles for the overnight shift. I really wasn't too surprised to come downstairs and find the picture-perfect Mommy/Danee moment that I did, but I was sure glad that I had the camera with me! (which I did, because I'd just taken the pic of the cake topper, and wanted to post it on the blog!)



And finally to close out this update on the Danee News Network, last week the Puddle Jumpers finally got to go hands-on with our little baby girl! (not ALL of them, but a couple of the older, more trustworthy and germ free ones did...)

Here's Zoe enjoying some Danee time:



And Kaoru not only got to hold her, but he'd also made her an origami ninja hat!



That'll definitely come in handy if she ever needs to fend off someone who wants to hold her, who hasn't washed their hands!

Well there's all the news that I can think of in my half asleep state. It's definitely time for bed, and HOPEFULLY Danee will sleep for a long time so that her loving parents can too.

G'nite!